Drabble series 1
by bhut
Summary: My first series of A:TLAthemed drabbles. Next up - Toph's mental angst and Zuko's grown-up advice to Aang.
1. Chapter 1

**Drabble series 1**

The Avatar and others belong to Mike, Bryan, and Co.

**Beginnings**

The Avatar and his little friends do not know it yet, but the conflicts of the current war lie buried in many, many centuries ago, when the first Avatar, born incidentally in the Fire Nation, had saved the world from the evil spirit Camazotz, whose wings could eclipse the sun…

**Ends **

"You know, we have had many crazy days so far, but this one is one of the more bizarre," says Sokka, chewing on a chunk of a freshly killed giant whale-squid, watching as his friend Aang the Avatar marries in holy Zuko's uncle Iroh and (noticeably pregnant) bounty hunter Jun.

**Red**

"You again," snarls Zuko as he stares down at Jet. "This perseverance of yours is becoming annoying!"

"That's 'cause it's only the beginning, firebender scum!" the rebel leader snaps.

"There you go with that crazy assumption again," Iroh intervenes between the two angry young men. "After all, how would you feel if everybody assumed that _you_ were from the Fire Nation with that red hair of yours?"

"That's because I dye it with tickseed potion!" Jet snaps, but now on the defensive.

Iroh nods sagely. "Ah yes, tickseed. I used to dye my hair to impress the ladies too – too bad nobody remembered to tell me that hair dyes cause premature baldness too."

Jet shrieks, grabs his red hair, and flees the teashop, to the general amusement of the patrons.

**Blue**

"Hakoda! Arna!" Gran-Gran Kanna thunders at her son and daughter-in-law. "How did you manage to have your firstborn dyed so _completely_ blue?"

**Black**

As the evil (and noticeably crazy) Dai Li ally Hsu "Black Dragon" Wu charges towards Sokka and Suki over the battlefield, neither can completely hide their relief as the Avatar and the Blue Spirit join forces to stop the black-clad assassin.

**Colorless**

"My hair," Jet groans, "my hair! It has gone completely grey and colorless!"

**Friends**

"So Zuko," Aang shifts his staff across the knees and looks across his interlocutor in the Spirit Realm, "does this mean that you want us to become friends?"

Zuko pauses, as he looks at the 112-year-old boy who is the world's last hope. "Let's work on it."

**Enemies (foes)**

Throughout his time outside the iceberg, Aang never had felt any particular antipathy towards anybody, even Azula; as he watches, encaged, as the general Chang-Ho boasts about the demise of his people, he knows for the first time that he had encountered his first real enemy.

**Lovers**

"So tell me Zuko," Mai shakes with barely suppressed emotion as she confronts Zuko once more in the streets of nighttime Ba Sing Se, "did you ever remember me?"

"Mai," Zuko replies softly, never breaking their eye contact with the girl master thrower, "I've never forgotten you, never."

As the two passionately kiss, Mai's blades fall clanging onto the pavement…

**Teammates**

Mai was never particularly fond of Ty Lee; if it was not for their mutual friendship with Azula, she would not give the thief-acrobat any time of her day; but seeing how at the mere sight of her would-be suitor Ty Lee practically dissolved into a quivering mould of weeping jelly, Mai prepared for a fight.

**Parents**

"What's wrong with the ideas-guy now?" Zuko asked Toph as they went-off to spar at the nearby field.

"Suki told him that after this was over, they are meeting her parents," Toph shrugged casually. "Guess Meathead's brain just froze."

**Death**

As Ozai plummets to his death Aang has no time to dawdle – he has to stop Sozin's comet from smashing into the earth.

**Sixth Sense**

"Don't ask me how I can see auras," Ty Lee tells the Avatar. "It's a sort of a sixth sense, I guess."

**Smell**

"Boy, this fish soup sure smells good," Aang comments absent-mindedly, as he helps himself a plate.

"The problem with that statement," Mai mutters to Zuko as the two expect their meal with deep suspicion, "is that apparently the ideas guy has confused mountain parsley with the yinseng root."

Zuko nods towards some nearby bushes. "Or has he?"

**Sound **

"Gah! Meathead! Do you have to make-out with your girlfriend so loudly?!" Toph wails as the elder teens ignore her.

**Sight**

The sight of the little Bei Fong girl pulling a huge boulder into the air fills Zuko with a respect for her abilities; the fact that he helps her get back to their camp afterwards does the same thing for Toph.

**Shapes**

"You know, that cloud looks like a whale-squid," Aang muses.

"Yes, very," agrees Zuko.

"Or maybe a weasel-cat?" Aang doubts.

"Maybe from the rear end only."

"Or an antelope-camel?"

"Well, maybe the back?"

"Isn't this nice that they are starting to get along?" Katara muses.

"Considering that on his right side Zuko is about as blind as you," Ty Lee whispers to Toph, "I wouldn't be so sure."

**Heart**

"Don't they make a cute couple," Aang asks Katara as Iroh and his new wife walk by holding hands.

"Yeah, cross my heart and hope to die, really," Zuko mutters. Maybe not coming home will not be so bad anyways.

**  
Diamond**

"And grandma Sen never thought that I'd be finally wearing one of these," Jun muses silently as she looks at her new ring.

**Snow**

"Did you know that the Avatar Gotal used to make snow by combining air and water bending?" king Kuei asks Aang.

"No," Aang sighs guiltily.

**Lightning**

As Zuko's new, red-hot firebending style shields him from Azula's lightning bolts, Ty Lee grows scared for her friend.

**Fixed**

"Don't worry, Sokka," Katara says more wearily than how she intends to. "We will fix your boomerang."

**Who**

"Let me get this straight," Sokka glares at the shorter boy. "We set up camp at a place cursed by the spirits, and now Katara has become an eagle owl due to the curse? How do you intend to fix that?!"

"Who-Who!" Katara hoots agreement to her brother's statement from her perch.

**What**

"What do you mean, Long Feng has double-crossed us?" Azula shrieks.

**When**

"When I become an aunt, will you allow me to visit you?" one night Azula asks quite meekly, as Mai and Zuko exchange looks.

**Life**

"Lord Azulon, the crisis has passed, your granddaughter shall live," the tall, willowy woman, informs the fire lord from her kneeling poise.

**School**

When you are the female child of the youngest son of the Fire Lord, life is not that easy for you in the Academy; but with Ty Lee keeping their spirits up with insane gymnastics and Mai guarding them with that cool demeanor of hers, Azula realizes that life is passable.

**Work**

"All work and no play makes Mai's aura really grey!" the thief-acrobat sings gaily.

"All play and no work make Ty Lee a real dork!" the master thrower replies dryly.

**Christmas**

"It's Christmas eve!" Aang says enthusiastically. "That makes it my official first year outside that iceberg!"

**Freebie**

"Twinkle-Toes, why in the name of Geb did you make it rain in the sauna?!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Not Enough**

"I had not spent enough time with my children, and so I now vanquish in this cold and empty hell," mutters the Fire Lord, as he knows that it is true.

He favored the prodigy – and the prodigy has "repaid" him by becoming a failure, an absolute nothing that does nothing and is valued as nothing.

He ignored the other, not-so-fortunate child – and that child is now wearing his crown, ruling the Fire Nation in his stead, after murdering the Fire Lord for the last possible reason.

"If only I knew back then what I know now," the dead Fire Lord Azulon mutters, and the chains forged from human malice rattle as he seethes in his post-mortem death.

End


	3. Chapter 3

**Lunch**

"Ah, Mai?" the young boy was clearly embarrassed by what he was about to do. "Are you in here?"

"Yes, prince Zuko, I am," Mai managed to suppress the squeak in her voice. "What, ah, you want?"

"I want to apologize for the fountain," Zuko said, glad that Mai could not see him blush.

"You're forgiven," Mai managed not to hyperventilate from excitement.

"Good," Zuko nodded and went onto the second part of his mother's advice. "So, Mai, do you want to have lunch with my family? You're invited."

Before Mai could think, she replied – "Sure!"

"Then it's a date," Zuko said, imitating his cousin Lu Ten. "Right, Mai?"

However, Mai did not hear him speak. She fainted.


	4. Chapter 4

**White**

"Would you just look at the blushing bridge, all radiant in white," muttered one of the best men, Sokka of the Water Tribe, as he and Zuko watched Jun walk down the isle (Katara was the flower girl). In the white robes, Jun's condition was more noticeable than usual.

Zuko just glared at him. "You watch it – I hear you muttering about my uncle's tea recipe that allowed him to do such a feat."

Sokka shut up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hours**

"Boy, the hours of day sure fly fast when we're flying!" Sokka commented to Toph. Luckily, Appa, who was doing the actual flying, did not hear him – otherwise Sokka would've flown on his own.


	6. Chapter 6

**Brown**

"Once upon a time," Mai muses to her boyfriend, "it was spring. It was green and lovely. But then it became brown and depressing."

Zuko says nothing, but just hugs Mai tighter.

"Thank you," Mai quietly whispers into his ear. "Thank you for making brown green again."


	7. Chapter 7

**Too much**

Iroh was a man of fortune, benevolent fortune – that was his biggest flaw: whenever the fickle spirit would turn against him, Iroh would mope, preventing him from recovering the initiative. This flaw manifested only occasionally in his life – when his wife and son, Alia and Lu Ten, perished, and Iroh lost – the siege at Ba Sing Se, his chance to get his crown… But then, there was Zuko. Iroh's nephew believed in him, and little by little, Iroh began to believe that Zuko might be the man Lu Ten was becoming before he died.

Iroh was wrong. Zuko was nothing like Lu Ten, though he tried to be that man as hard as he could. For a while, it seems to work, as Zuko literally broke himself to be happy for his uncle in that tea shop of theirs. But then the Avatar came back, and Iroh wanted Zuko to help the bald monk of his own volition. It was too much. Zuko's true nature snapped back with an unusual extent, and disaster followed suit, from which Iroh never truly recovered.

Iroh's story, put short, is a story of a man who trusted the spirit of his fortune just a little too much.


	8. Chapter 8

**Touch. **

"Gah! Meathead! I can sense you touching your girlfriend in all those places through the vibrations! Go and get a room instead!" Toph continued to wail.

**Triangle.**

"So, how is – well, how is Mai?" Aang floundered as he tried to ask a rather grown-up question to Zuko.

The new Fire Lord rolled his good eye. "Aang," he said firmly. "When we go to bed, it is always just her, me, and her knives. Find yourself a good dry place for the honeymoon journey, lest you find yourself in such a triangle yourself."


End file.
